Kinds of evidence showing the effects of schooling on IQ
Recommendations on system change
According
to Ceci (1991), there is a high correlation between IQ and the number of grades
completed or achieved by each student. I would recommend my school district as
part of system change to implement policies which will increase the students
IQ. Though IQ is heritable, years of schooling can also be heritable. In this
policy, the district can change the heritability of traits as well as the
variance and mean of heritable traits. These policies will be aimed at ensuring
that schooling affects IQ positively.
Children
and especially those in low SES decline slightly in IQ over the summer period. During
the summer period, children in SES attend schools and their IQ is nurtured by
their teachers and as a result, their IQ do not decline or decline slightly (Ceci,
1991). It is important for my school district to introduce policies which will
ensure that children attend schools for almost three quarters in a year to
ensure that their IQ does not decline.
Intermittent
school attendance has a negative effect on IQ. The level of continued education
is a major factor affecting the IQ level of a student (Thomas and Currie, 1995).
As a student moves up the academic ladder, new facets of knowledge enter into
his mind. I would advise my school district to put polices into place which
will ensure that the students attend schools without skipping to help teachers
to continually nurture their IQ.
Dropping
out or early end of school has a negative effect on IQ (Ceci, 1991). When a
student drops school at an early age, then he or she will be unable to acquire
new facets of knowledge which are acquired through schooling. As a result, his
IQ will not be nurtured to growth and this will negatively affect his IQ as it
will not grow to greater levels but rather become retarded. Through schooling,
children are motivated by the teachers. Measures of cognitive ability and IQ
scores increase over time through children’s motivation (Carroll, 1992). I
would advise the parents from my school district to ensure that their children
do not drop out of school at a tender age and especially when their IQ has not
been fully nurtured.
When
children are delayed in beginning schooling, their IQ is negatively affected
(Ceci, 1991). Schooling highly fosters the development of cognitive processes
which support the performance of IQ (Carroll, 1992). Children should be allowed
to start schooling at the schooling age of 4-5 years as schooling will lead to
the development of the cognitive processes (Thomas and Currie, 1995). Schooling
has positive effects on the achievement scores which are highly correlated with
IQ scores (Ceci, 1991). IQ scores are used by schools to predict the
achievement of a school. As part of system change, I would recommend the my
district school to frequently use intelligence tests as they will enable them to identify those
students with special needs and hence know how to help them.
Soldiers
in WWII had higher IQ scores than soldiers in WWI but when the number of years
in school was controlled, the differences became less than half as great (Ceci,
1991). As they progressed through the training, the soldiers were able to
nurture their IQ and hence the higher IQ scores for the WWII soldiers. With the
years been controlled the difference was less. This is because through
schooling one is able to attain high grades. It is advisable for my school
district to help children nurture their IQ throughout the school years and this
should be tested through IQ tests.
References
Ceci, S. (1991). How
much does schooling influence general intelligence and its cognitive components? A reassessment of the
evidence. Developmental Psychology, 17, 703-722
Carroll, J. B, (1992).
Cognitive abilities. The state of art. Psychological science 3, 266—270
Currie, J. and Thomas,
D. (1995). Does Head start make a difference? American Economic Review, June, 85, 342-364
